Thursday, July 24, 2014

I'd like you to imagine you are sitting in a land rover
in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. You’re out on a safari drive in an
open vehicle many kilometers from your ‘home base’, Norman Carr Safaris’
Mchenja Bushcamp.
You've just watched a spectacular sunset whilst sipping your G&T and
snacking on some home-made bush snacks. You've had a wonderful day of
sightings, from a hyena in labour to lions lazing in the shade with their nine cubs.
Not to mention countless elephants, giraffes, zebra and warthog!

As you clamber back onto the Landy, darkness is falling
and the excitement of the night drive begins.....and tonight you’re about to witness
one of the most extraordinary sightings the South Lunagwa has seen for a while,
this is what happened….

Keen to see the difference in lion behaviour once night
falls, the small group headed back to area the pride had been spotted earlier
in the day. This time, instead of sleeping (as lions mostly are) the animals
were up and stalking - slowly creeping towards some impala happily eating the
grass and blissfully unaware of the dangers. An adult lioness pounces.... but
too early, and the lucky impala bounces safely off.

Innocent, one of Norman Carr Safaris finest guides, aware
of a herd of puku further up the plain, drives over in their direction in
anticipation of a second attempt by the lions. He switches off the engine, turns
off the lights…..and waits. It's an exhilarating moment full of anticipation, sitting
in the darkness, listening to the sounds of the Zambian bush at night, smelling
the smells of the South Luangwa. Occasionally a muted light goes on, and our
guests can see the lions getting closer and closer. Again, the puku blissfully
unaware of the deadly predators closing in on them.

And then... the primal guttural noise and growling from
the lion in unison with the puku's alarm call as one sustained and deafening
noise. The lion have got their kill. Even the cubs muscle in on the struggling
animal, biting their mothers legs to get some supper themselves. No unusual sighting. This is, of course, every day life
in the South Luangwa...

What makes this extraordinary is what happens next. A
hippo appears out of nowhere, walking toward the site of the lion kill…....
Innocent explains that he may well be there to charge the herd; hippos have
been known to do this to save other animals - particularly if there are little
ones around.

But this time, he wasn't there to charge. Instead, the
lions picked up the carcass, moving a few metres away from the hippo, leaving a
gory trail behind. The hippo, predominantly a herbivore, starts to eat the
Puku's stomach and the stomach lining itself. Innocent’s theory is that the
contents of the puku’s stomach would be mostly grass with some extra nutrients
needed by the hippo, but still, watching a full lion pride and a hippo ‘sharing
a meal’ only a few meters away from each other was something we don’t see every
season.